Thursday, March 10, 2011

The Southside is now home to the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse. The 10-year old organization left it’s building on Second Avenue for a new “campus” at the River Park Commons Business Center. Greenhouse CEO John Manzetti says right now they are providing space for about a dozen incubator companies.

Manzetti says the lease in the old build was coming up for renewal and they looked at all areas of the region before landing on the south side. He says he wanted to be near the universities, near the companies working in the life sciences field and still have reasonable rental rates.

The new building will not only hold the greenhouse’s administrative offices and its clients, it will also be home to two venture capital firms and a pair of bio science companies. “To allow them to see what is going on in our greenhouse portfolio and actually see some companies up close and personal for the purposes of partnering with them, investing money in the case of a venture capital firm, or maybe investing in technology they think is important for their growth,” says Manzetti.

Manzetti says another advantage of the new location is the ability to expand. He says they have more space in the buildings that they are currently occupying and have access to other buildings in the area.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Pittsburgh’s regional foundation community, founded PLSG as a public/private partnership in 2001. It provides startup capital, building space, and access to qualified personnel and connections to other companies to emerging technologies.